[logancbrown]

To directly answer the question, Rednote is not generally used outside China, and the point about these apps being representative of "global" social media apps is false.

[dluan]

Xiaohongshu is used by a lot of huaqiao outside of China. It has a sizeable overseas userbase, but it also has 300M total users.

[throwawayq3423]

To their point, almost exclusively Chinese overseas until the recent memeing.

[bryanlarsen]

RedNote was #1 on the App Store download list for a couple of days.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/chinese-app-rednote-hits-1-i...

[xmprt]

So was this app at one point in time: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/9/21058399/david-dobrik-disp...

It's called Dispo. You probably haven't heard of it because it became almost irrelevant a few weeks after launch. #1 on the app store doesn't mean a whole lot.

[drakythe]

That’s an extremely recent development caused by the TT shutdown looming.

[toomanyrichies]

How many of those downloads originated in China? Genuine question, I read the article and it doesn't say. Apple's App Store is available in China, and China's population alone could be skewing those numbers.

[throwawayq3423]

Yes it's called a meme and it won't last.

[pantalaimon]

It received some popularity among TikTok refugees from the US and subsequently also from around the world by users who got curios about what the fuzz was all about.